Small Arms Survey 2003: Development Denied

The challenges of post-conflict reconstruction and development, in places such as Afghanistan, Angola, Iraq, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are enormous, often overwhelming. The transition from reconstruction to sustainable growth and development is slow and takes years, if not decades. Human insecurity, fuelled in part by the widespread availability and misuse of small arms and light weapons, is one crucial negative factor in this complex equation. For this reason, we have chosen to focus in this edition of the Small Arms Survey on the link between small arms and human development, under the sub-heading 'Development Denied'. Of course, small arms are only one piece of a complex and dynamic puzzle, and isolating the impacts of small arms availability and misuse on human development is a daunting task. In the various chapters of the yearbook, we have attempted to document how small arms availability and misuse can undermine the prospects for human development and to bring to light available evidence wherever possible. The result is an important and ambitious agenda for future research and action.